Bonny

Bonny (bon'ē) [key], town, SE Nigeria, in the Niger River delta, on the Bight of Biafra. In the 18th and 19th cent., Bonny was the center of a powerful trading state, and in the 19th cent. it became the leading site for slave exportation in W Africa. From 1885 to 1894 it was the administrative center of the British Oil Rivers Protectorate. Bonny declined in the 20th cent. but revived after 1961, when its port was modernized as the export point for petroleum refined at Port Harcourt.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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